Uprooting For Love: Wise or Desperate

Guys who quit their jobs, pack their bags, and skip town to be with the woman they love are thought to be romantic. We see it all the time in chick flicks, a chiseled Hellenic god of a 20-something male hopping a train just in time to catch his leading lady before she sets off into the horizon forever.

A part of us thinks it's cheesy, dated, unrealistic. But maybe another part of us hopes for it to happen one day for the sake of knowing that there's someone who cares about us enough to abandon everything in the name of love.

Flip the scenario on its back side and you've got an entirely different outcome. A woman who quits her job, packs her bags, and skips town to be with a man? Twenty per cent romantic, eighty per cent idiotic - or so we often say. At least, that's what we're supposed to think; that we're brainless and flaky for switching gears for our love life.

Relationship studies over the years have suggested that men are driven to the pursuit of females in every capacity, that they are biologically inclined to hunt us, sniff us out, and drag us by the hair back to the proverbial cave. Many women enjoy the chase.

But in this day and age, many women also enjoy initiating the chase. If we are at a point in time where it's acceptable for women to ask men out on dates, is it also acceptable for a woman to uproot her life for the man she's seeing without shedding her independent image? Serious relationships require sacrifice from both parties, commitment is obviously a two way street. If our fast paced career changed pace and called us overseas, we're likely to expect our long time significant others to at the very least consider moving to be with us. So why, then, is it socially shameful for a woman to follow suit? Is it a sign of weakness? A betrayal to the women's lib movement?

At the end of the day, there should be equal respect and encouragement of our partners' passions in life. Immediately expecting someone to drop everything and run for us is not an issue of selfishness not exclusive to either gender.

How do you feel about women uprooting for men? Is there a double standard?



Photo from FaceMePLS on Flickr

Courtney Gilmour
		About the author:
		Courtney is a published writer, stand-up comic, and shameless Internet enthusiast. She holds a double bachelors degree in English Literature and Communication Media Studies, specializing in semiotic theory, however she doesn't get Shakespeare and has never won a game of Scrabble. Currently she lives in Toronto and works as a writer for WOMAN.CA.
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